Film Review: Farewell (12A) * * * *

RONALD Reagan was viewed as something of a Hollywood simpleton when he first became US president.

RONALD Reagan was viewed as something of a Hollywood simpleton when he first became US president.

But under his watch the seeds were sown for the fall of Communism and Farewell reflects the history behind it.

Despite there being Communist ministers in the French government, the film shows how Reagan (Fred Ward) reluctantly sided with President Mitterand.

The film’s title refers to a single Soviet source, Col Grigoriev.

Real name Vladimir Vetrov (alias Farewell) he is brilliantly played by Emir Kusturica, a magnetic Sarajevo-born cross between Stephen Fry, Jeremy Clarkson and Depardieu.

As well as helping the election of a Polish Pope and Soviet failings in Afghanistan, the colonel’s list of KGB agents in France, the US and elsewhere is said to have assisted with the toppling of the ailing Soviet Bloc, too.

Shocked to discover just what the Russians had learned about US strategic arms development, we see the Americans trying to turn a negative into a positive.

Could promoting the bluff of the Strategic Defense Initiative neuter the Soviet threat without a single nuclear missile being fired?

Directed by Christian Caron, Farewell is full of great cinematic moments, including a boy standing on picnic tables in a field pretending to be Freddie Mercury in concert, a car heading for checkpoint trouble on a snowbound highway and the Oval office from above.

The story is well paced, with light and shade, tension and quiet and even David Soul as Hutton!

Clips from the John Wayne/Jimmy Stewart western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, illustrate how your point of view can change in an instant.

But director Christian Carron’s modern classic is only on at the MAC from today until Tuesday. Don’t miss it.